Tampa International Airport served a record-breaking 22,166,049 million passengers in Fiscal Year 2019, a 5.5 percent increase over the previous year.
The performance comes on the heels of strong domestic service growth led by Frontier and Spirit, and new international service, including nonstop flights to London on Norwegian Airlines and to Amsterdam on Delta Air Lines.
"This has been an amazing year not just for Tampa International Airport, but the whole Tampa Bay area," said Airport CEO Joe Lopano. "This growth speaks to the strength of our region and our market for both business and leisure travelers."
TPA's fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 thorough the end of September.
Domestic passengers were up 4.8 percent, while international passenger traffic jumped 19.3 percent.
Since 2011, TPA's international passenger traffic has increased 185.1 percent.
"We're really seeing tremendous momentum in international air service, especially to Europe, with five nonstop flights to four cities," Lopano said. "The reach of these flights goes beyond just one city because many of these destinations offer a convenient connection to cities throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and really, almost anywhere in the world. And not only do these flights allow our residents to explore the world, but they bring visitors from across the globe to Tampa."
Norwegian Airlines officially joined TPA with service to London's Gatwick on Oct. 31 while Delta Air Lines added its first European route to Amsterdam on May 23. Norwegian's service joins British Airways as the second nonstop service to London – the first time in Airport history that two airlines have served one European city.
On the domestic front, Spirit Airlines, TPA's fastest growing carrier, saw a 30 percent passenger increase over the previous year with the addition of service to Philadelphia and San Juan. Service to Nashville, Indianapolis, New York and Newark were announced this year and will launch in FY20.
TPA also experienced its busiest spring break to date, serving nearly 2.8 million passengers from March 5 to April 9 – a seven percent increase over the same period last year. During this time, 75 percent of passengers waited less than 10 minutes at TSA, including a day that saw more than 44,500 outbound passengers.
While the airport served a record number of travelers, TPA broke ground on Phase 2 of its three-phase Master Plan expansion, which includes 16 express curbsides for passengers without checked luggage and a 35-acre commercial development around the Rental Car Center that will feature an office building, hotel, retail, a commercial curb for ground transportation and a new regional trail network. Phase 3 of the expansion includes the construction of a new 16-gate Airside D for international and domestic flights.
